Mick HumeThey need more than sympathy for NedaThe way that the image of a dying student has become the icon of the Iranian protests suggests both strengths and weaknesses in the opposition.

Friday 26 June 2009

Martyn PerksDigital Britain: welcome to the slow laneThe UK government’s report on the future of the internet and the creative industries replaces the freedom to innovate with an overwhelming impulse to regulate everything.

James Woudhuysen and Para MullanGladwell: hero or zero?One reviewer is disappointed that Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers reveals more about the author’s prejudices than it does the nature of success, while another is won over by Gladwell's emphasis on hard work.

Julian GrenierThe kids, including the boys, are all rightUsing questionable facts and tiny selections from complex research, Sue Palmer tries to convince us that twenty-first century boys are vulnerable, neglected and confused. Things aren’t as bad as she makes out.

Rob LyonsPuritanism disguised as scienceIn the past tyrannical rulers poured molten lead down the throats of offending smokers; today smokers are shunned from public buildings and forced to light up in the street. Why have puffers always been seen as a threat to society?

Nathalie RothschildTravel can change the world? Get over yourselfAt a time of so much doom and eco-gloom about foreign travel, Rick Steves puts an impassioned case for exploring the world. But his belief that travel is a political act means he ends up debasing both tourism and politics.

Helene GuldbergRestating the case for human uniquenessA brilliant new book cuts through all the media-oriented research about ‘clever chimps’ using tools, doing maths and feeling emotions, and reminds us that, in truth, there is nothing remotely human about primates.

Neil DavenportChina’s factory girls: nobody’s victimsAt last, a book on China’s growth that doesn’t paint migrant workers as pathetic victims but rather as aspirational individuals who now have far more choices than marrying the village idiot.

Philip HammondAl-Qaeda: what’s the big idea?Faisal Devji’s new book draws some daring parallels between the outlook of militant suicide bombers and that of Western humanitarians – but it ultimately projects the author’s own search for political meaning on to the al-Qaeda network.

Jennie BristowBad mother, good bookAyelet Waldman’s memoir about her various ‘maternal crimes’ is sometimes eye-wateringly detailed, solipsistic and infuriating – but it is also far more enlightening than the reams of mummy lit written over the past 10 years.

Frank FurediThe politics of the hidden agendaSpreading conspiracy theories – stories about a world warped by evil forces – remains the pastime of marginalised groups. But conspiratorial thinking, the idea that someone, somewhere is to blame for every misfortune, has become respectable.

Monday 29 June 2009

Anna TravisBan-happy BrightonFar from promising a wild weekend, the UK seaside town of Brighton is fast degenerating into a centre of booze-confiscating puritanism.

Wendy KaminerIn defence of the right to discriminateThe attempt to force religious groups to embrace gays and non-believers is an intolerable assault on the freedoms of religion, speech and association.